Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The
Hume family records go well back in the Middle-Ages. If you have ever seen the movie Braveheart,
you have an idea of the life of this warrior family. The family had the tragic
distinction of seeing every first son die either in battle or as a prisoner of
the English from 1413 to 1576, a time when life in the border country was often
short and brutal. Sir David Hume’s grandson, of the same name, and the eldest
of his seven sons, Sir George both died at the battle of Flodden Field in 1513
and may be buried in the burial ground there.

The union of the Scottish and
English crowns under James in 1603 began the long path to the formal Act of
Union in 1707. This brought an unfamiliar calm to the border country. Landed
families could concentrate their revenues on building grand houses without
concern for fortification and engage in the rapid intellectual and
philosophical (and recreational) developments now known as the Scottish
Enlightenment. But our colonial story starts with an orphaned twelve year-old girl
by the name of Barbara Hume whose family fled from religious and political
persecution in 1682.

Many countries were involved in the colonizing of the New World. Our family results from most of these countries. There were disputes among these countries until we were finally a sovereign nation unto ourselves. This is but one example."Johan
Gustaffson from the Kinnekulle area, Skaraborg Iän, came to New Sweden in 1643
as a soldier under Governor Printz. Printz' successor, Governor Rising,
promoted him to the position of a gunner and, as such, he was stationed at Fort
Trinity (New Castle) in 1655 when Captain Sven Skute surrendered the fort to
the Dutch. . . After the surrender of New Sweden to the Dutch, Johan Gustafsson
moved northward to Kingsessing where he died c. 1682, leaving a widow and at
least eleven children. They kept Gustafsson as their surname, but it was heard
and written by the English as Eustafason, Justison, etc. [John Gustafsson's
name last appears in a public record on 14 March 1681/2 when it was agreed that
the lawsuit by Peter [Mattson] Dalboe vs. John Eustasson for trespass would be
referred to arbitration. CCR, 1:11-12]. Justis, Justus or Justice finally
evolved as the family surname. By 1693, several members of the family had
married and left home: Gustaf, Mans, Anna and Hans"

"Kinnekulle is a large wooded hill or plateau, nine miles long and four
miles across, rising 860 feet above Lake Vanern in Skaraborg County in central
Sweden. This was the home area of the Swedish soldier Johan Gustafsson,
progenitor of numerous Justice, Justis and justus descendants in America. Johan
Gustafsson came to New Sweden on the Swam in 1643 on the fourth Expedition and
was initially stationed at Fort Elfsborg, commonly called 'Fort Mosquito' by
the men living there. The fort was located on the east side of the Delaware
River near the present town of Salem, N.J. Governor Rising replaced Governor
Printz as Governor in 1654 and promoted Gustasson to the rank of gunner,
transferring him to Fort Trinity at present New Castle, Delaware. While there,
Johan Gustafsson married Brita Mansdotter, whose father Mans Andersson was then
living nearby

"After the surrender of New Sweden to the Dutch in September 1655, Johan
Gustafsson decided to join his countrymen in the new, self-governing 'Swedish
Nation' located north of the Christina River. He established his plantation in
Kingsessing (West Philadelphia) on the banks of the Schuylkill River. The
English patent for this plantation, dated 16 May 1669, named him John 'Eustas'
and described the tract as including 150 acres. He later expanded his holding
to 300 acres. Johan Gustafsson died in Kingsessing around 1682 and was survived
by his wife Brita and eleven children. Half of his plantation went to his
eldest son. The other half was sold in 1699.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Thomas came to Virginia Colony,
(Tydewater), then settling in Shenandoah Valley about 1710 along Beaverdam Rum
of Aquia Creek and Chopawamsic Creek. By 1739 lands adjacent his had been
surveryed in his son's names. He was an early explorer across the Blue Ridge
Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley and "Ashby Gap" is named after
him. He claimed 1269 acres on the East side of the Shenandoah River on
Novermber 19, 1733. He served as a Captain in the county militia and was active
as a companion to surveyors of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He owned a ferry
across the Shenandoah River and a tavern at Ashby's Gap. He died in 1752 with
his will proven in Winchester Court August 4, 1752. Thomas’ six sons also were members of the
Virginia Militia. The five,older sons
fought in the Revolutionary War. The
youngest son fought in the War of 1812.

Ashby
Gap Shenandoah Valley

Letter
from George Washington to John Ashby Oct 14 1755 - The Writings of George
Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799. John C.
Fitzpatrick, Editor. Winchester, October 14th., 1755. It is my express Orders,
that you do not presume to March your Company down on any pretence whatsoever, unless
compelled by the Enemy. Clothes will be sent up immediately to you, which you
may distribute to the most needy of your Company; and Money I shall bring up to
pay them off, if wanted.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

William
Berry was born in Norfolk, England, the son of Johan Berry. He was in
service to Captain John Mason in 1631, when Mason sent 58 men and 22
women to the Piscataqua River in North America.

The
following were returned as belonging to Sandy Beach in 1688: William Berry (his
son), John Berry (his son), John Marden, John Foss 1st, John Foss Jr., John
Odiorne, Anthony Brackett, Francis Ran, Thomas Ran, WIlliam Wallis, James
Randall, William Seavie, James Berry (his son), Samuel Ran, John Seavie,
Anthony Libbie, and Jos.

William
Berry married Jane Locke Hermins in 1636 in the town of Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. He signed the Glebe Conveyance in 1640. {S7}.
In 1640, only seventeen years after the first settling of Portsmouth, Francis
Williams, (the governor,) Ambrose Gibbins, William Jones, Renald Fernald, John
Crowther, Anthony Bracket, Michael Chatterton, Jno. Wall, Robert Puddington,
Matthew Coe, Henry Sherburn, John Lander, Henry Taler, Jno. Jones, William
Berry, Jno. Pickering, Jno. Billing, Jno. Wolten, Nicholas Row and William
Palmer, the principal inhabitants of Portsmouth, made a deed of fifty acres of
land in Portstmouth for a Glebe, or Parsonage.

He became
a freeman on 18 May 1642 in Newbury, Massachusetts and is on the list
of the first settlers of Newbury.

He
received a lot "upon the neck of land on the south side of the Little
River at Sandy Beach on January 31, 1648 that included the area where 'Locke's
Neck' is located.

Berry
served as a Selectman of Strawberry Bank (which is now Portsmouth,
New Hampshire) in 1646.

·Savage,
James A., A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, 1860- 1862., (Boston 1860-1862; rpt Baltimore
1955), [Savage], 1:171·The
Berrys by the beach : one of New Hampshire's first families / by Sylvia
Fitts Getchell.·New
England Marriages Prior to 1700,Charles Torrey,New England Historic and
Genealogy Society, Boston·Parsons,
Langdon B., History of the Town of Rye, NH From Its Discovery and Settlement to
December 31, 1903, (1905; repr. Bowie, MD: Heritage Press 1992), [RyeHist],
269.·Brewster,
Charles W., The Selling of the Land, ~186·http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Berry_(pioneer)

Freeman in Colonial Times

Black's Law
Dictionary(9th
edition) defines Freeman as 1. A person who possesses and enjoys all thecivil
and political rightsbelonging
to the people under a free government. 2. A person who is not a slave. 3. Hist.
A member of a municipal corporation (a city or a borough) who possesses full
civic rights, esp. the right to vote. 4. Hist. A freeholder. Cf. VILLEIN. 5.
Hist. An allodial landowner. Cf. VASSAL. - also written free man.[2]

"Freedom" was earned after
an allotted time, or until the person demanding "payment" was
satisfied – this was known asindentured servitude, and was not originally intended as a stigma or
embarrassment for the person involved since many of the sons and daughters of
the wealthy and famous of the time found themselves forced into such temporary
servitude.

Anindentured servantwould sign a contract agreeing to serve for a
specific number of years, typically five or seven. Many immigrants to the
colonies came as indentured servants, with someone else paying their passage to
the Colonies in return for a promise of service. At the end of his service,
according to the contract, the indentured servant (male or female) usually
would be granted a sum of money, a new suit of clothes, land, or perhaps
passage back to England. An indentured servant was not the same as an
apprentice or a child who was "placed out."

Once a man was made a freeman,
and was no longer considered acommon, he
could, and usually would, become a member of the church, and he could own land.
The amount of land he was able to own was sometimes determined by how many
members there were in his family. As a freeman, he became a member of the
governing body, which met in annual or semiannual meetings (town meetings) to make and enforce laws and pass judgment in civil and
criminal matters. As the colonies grew these meetings became impractical and a
representativebicameralsystem was developed. Freeman would choosedeputy governorswho made up theupper houseof theGeneral
Courtandassistant governors, thelower house, who chose the governor from among their ranks, and who
passed judgments in civil and criminal matters. To hold one of these offices it
was required, of course, for one to be a freeman. Thus, the enfranchised voters
and office holders were landholding male church members. Women, Native
Americans and other non-Puritans were not made freeman.

Initially, any male first
entering into a colony, or just recently having become a member of one of the
local churches, was formally notfree. They
were considered common. Such persons were never forced to work for another
individual, per se, but their movements were carefully observed, and if they
veered from the Puritanical ideal, they were asked toleave the colony. If they
stayed or later returned to the colony, they were occasionally put to death.

There was an unstatedprobationary periodthat the prospective "freeman"
needed to go through, and if he did pass this probationary period of time –
usually one to two years – he was allowed his freedom.

A Freeman was said to be free of
all debt, owing nothing to anyone except God Himself.